Decorative small chains fashioned from gold and silver were made back in the time before Christ. By 200 B.C. Greeks used chains for water-raising machines; later, Romans used bronze chains in their galleys. Other uses of chains were explored during the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci sketched both hinged link chains and continuous chain drives with sprocket wheels in his manuscripts, but its not known whether the chains he drew were ever made. Iron chains and buckets were used in the 1500s as part of pumping machinery to replace ropes and earthenware pots. In a 1588 drawing of a water-raising machine, there is a chain with square links that fit over projecting teeth on wooden wheels; each square link is connected to the next one by three oval links.

Due to the high cost and scarcity of suitable metals, as well as the absence of good tools to create chains...